Spotlight - No Wikipedia results

[funkahdafi]

Hi,

I am on 10.10 DP3 and my Spotlight doesn't look like in most other people's screenshots. I do not get any results from internet sources (like Wikipedia) in my Spotlight searches at all.

I checked the Spotlight preferences and I don't have the "Websites" (or was it Webpages?) search provider listed there.

Is this disabled in current DPs? Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[ACDIT]

Same here.

 

[ACDIT]

Update : temporary fix is to kill systemUIserver from the activity monitor.

 

[Intelligent]

Update : temporary fix is to kill systemUIserver from the activity monitor.

A quicker way (for me) Is opening terminal and typing "killall SystemUIServer"
Does the same thing.

 

[funkahdafi]

killing that process does nothing for me. are you guys sure you suddenly see search results from internet sources once you kill the process?

 

[ACDIT]

killing that process does nothing for me. are you guys sure you suddenly see search results from internet sources once you kill the process?

here's another fix i just discovered , let's say you type ''United States'' in the spotlight search and nothing comes out , erase it , and then type ''United States'' again ! tell me how it goes !

 

[funkahdafi]

same thing: nothing.

not from internet sources anyways. I am getting a result from the local Dictionary (called "Definition" in Spotlight), but we are talking about internet sources like Wikipedia.

 

[ACDIT]

Try killing systemUIserver again and reindex spotlight !

 

[funkahdafi]

sorry for the ignorance, but why would SystemUIserver be related? And what good would it do to re-index my (local!!) Spotlight?

 

[shanson27]

True ! I can confirm it, only local data

 

[Joseph C]

Web results only available in the US...

... for some inexplicable reason

 

[Julien]

sorry for the ignorance, but why would SystemUIserver be related? And what good would it do to re-index my (local!!) Spotlight?

Actually there is another Activity file named SpotlightNetHelper that is probably related to the problem. It is Not Responding (red). You can kill it and it will appear OK for a several minutes and then go back to Not Responding. However no Wikipedia results.

 

[funkahdafi]

Web results only available in the US...

... for some inexplicable reason

In another thread someone claimed he had web results outside the US.

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Actually there is another Activity file named SpotlightNetHelper that is probably related to the problem. It is Not Responding (red). You can kill it and it will appear OK for a several minutes and then go back to Not Responding. However no Wikipedia results.

That is a good find. I killed it and did a search. Nothing would show up, but interestingly another process called "Spotlight Web Content" was spawned when I searched.

So I am guessing this is simply a bug (possibly paired with the US-only statement made above).

 

[junaid149]

Im from India and running the public beta with the same problem...Nethelper wont respond as well...lets wait for apple to fix it...

 

[WiLLGT09]

I've noticed that even after a reboot and repair permissions a process called "SpotlightNetHelper" will even start showing as Not Responding. I'm guessing this could be the reason I, and others presumably, are not seeing internet search results via Spotlight.

I've submitted a bug report via Feedback Assistant.

EDIT: Oops, I didn't read well enough. I see OP's mentioned the process that keeps hanging.

 

[Dave245]

I'm from the UK and when i tried Spotlight yesterday, i had web results, i too thought this was US only i'm glad tho because i like it

 

[ed.]

I'm an Italian living in Germany, so I've setup the system in italian and my zone as Germany. No spotlight wikipedia results for me. I've noticed that the SpotlightNetHelper process is very delicate and is almost always not responding just after reboot. Force quitting it and then force quitting the Spotlight process usually brigs them both back and they start to behave.
I've discovered that the wikipedia and web results show up in spotlight if you set up your system in english and set your locations as United States. If you do that and reboot, the SpotlightNetHelper process will almost surely already not responding, so you should force quit that, then force quit Spotlight to have it back and working, and after that, when you launch spotlight, you'll be greeted by a nice little note that says that spotlight will show you results from iTunes, app store, movie showtimes, locations and so on. And so it does!
So I guess it's a matter of missing connections to local wikipedias and local editions of other data sources (although I would very much like to have the possibility to select english wiki results even if my system is in Italian, as the Italian wiki sucks!)

 

[Julien]

I'm from the UK and when i tried Spotlight yesterday, i had web results, i too thought this was US only i'm glad tho because i like it

What do you mean by "...i had web results..."? There are only 2 kinds of Spotlight web results. There is Bing which hasn't been enabled yet and Wiki which is US only (and many in the US are having Wiki search problems).

So you are saying you get Wiki search results?

 

[ed.]

it just might be that if you set your system language to english you also get english wiki results, although I've tried changing only the system language and not the location (so system in english and location germany), and it seemed not to work. Maybe english wiki results are enabled for english speaking countries.

 

[Dave245]

What do you mean by "...i had web results..."? There are only 2 kinds of Spotlight web results. There is Bing which hasn't been enabled yet and Wiki which is US only (and many in the US are having Wiki search problems).

So you are saying you get Wiki search results?

Yea i'm getting Wiki search results, when i type in spotlight it comes up with wiki results and a few other results.

 

[Naif1998]

I'm from Saudi Arabia & it showed local results only (files in the system) but when I tried today it worked perfectly !

 

[macfanfromCHI]

Im in the US and online features of Spotlight are NOT working for me. Anyone have any tips?

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I'm an Italian living in Germany, so I've setup the system in italian and my zone as Germany. No spotlight wikipedia results for me. I've noticed that the SpotlightNetHelper process is very delicate and is almost always not responding just after reboot. Force quitting it and then force quitting the Spotlight process usually brigs them both back and they start to behave.
I've discovered that the wikipedia and web results show up in spotlight if you set up your system in english and set your locations as United States. If you do that and reboot, the SpotlightNetHelper process will almost surely already not responding, so you should force quit that, then force quit Spotlight to have it back and working, and after that, when you launch spotlight, you'll be greeted by a nice little note that says that spotlight will show you results from iTunes, app store, movie showtimes, locations and so on. And so it does!
So I guess it's a matter of missing connections to local wikipedias and local editions of other data sources (although I would very much like to have the possibility to select english wiki results even if my system is in Italian, as the Italian wiki sucks!)

I tried that and it isn't working. Im in the US, and have tried what you said. have any more ideas?

 

[ed.]

Im in the US and online features of Spotlight are NOT working for me. Anyone have any tips?

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I tried that and it isn't working. Im in the US, and have tried what you said. have any more ideas?

So your system is set with english as language and US as country? Can you check if the SpotlightNetHelper process is listed as not responding (red) in the Activity Monitor?

 

[jsmith189]

I can't get anything but local data either. Which is odd, because as of a few days ago (unless it was added in DP4) I can now view in-line Wiki searches in Safari.

 

[macfanfromCHI]

So your system is set with english as language and US as country? Can you check if the SpotlightNetHelper process is listed as not responding (red) in the Activity Monitor?

Yep, I have the language set as English and the country is the United States. SpotlightNetHelper is NOT red in activity monitor.